Why is pricing the same for Cloud and self-hosted?

Last updated: June 15, 2026

A common question from teams evaluating Plane's self-hosted Commercial Edition is why the pricing is the same as Cloud, given that you're providing your own infrastructure. Here's the honest answer.

We price by value, not infrastructure

Plane's pricing isn't based on hosting costs. Honestly, Cloud is easier for us to manage, so we'd be happy if you chose that. But we price by the value you get out of the product, not where it runs.

That means you get the same feature set, the same product updates, and the same support regardless of whether you're on Cloud or self-hosted. We work hard to keep the two at full feature parity, and that commitment is reflected in the pricing.

Self-hosting has real costs on our end

Supporting self-hosted deployments is more resource-intensive than Cloud in many ways. Docker, Kubernetes, custom infrastructure, reverse proxies, networking, upgrades, and environment-specific issues all create a wide support surface that takes significant engineering and support time to manage.

On top of that, we're committed to supporting multiple deployment methods and keeping Plane performant enough to run on a wide variety of setups. That's a meaningful investment, and it's part of why the pricing reflects the same value as Cloud.

We're committed to self-hosted being just as good

We know many teams choose self-hosted for security, compliance, and data sovereignty reasons. GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and similar requirements often make self-hosting the only viable option. We take that seriously and are committed to making the self-hosted experience just as good as Cloud, not a second-class option.

What you get with self-hosted

  • Data sovereignty. Your data stays on your infrastructure.

  • Full control over when and how you update.

  • Easier compliance with regulatory requirements.

  • No vendor lock-in. You own your deployment.

For many teams, these benefits more than justify the cost parity with Cloud.

Community Edition is always free

If budget is a concern and your needs are simpler, the Community Edition is free with no seat restrictions. It has a more limited feature set but is a solid starting point for teams evaluating Plane.

Still have questions?

Feel free to reach out and we'll help you figure out which plan and deployment option makes the most sense for your setup.